Tera
Columbus, OH

You have asked some very good questions. I’ll do my best to answer each of them.

Vaccine-associated fibrosarcomas are cancers that develop rarely at the site of rabies or feline leukemia vaccines. They appear to occur only in cats. The cause of the tumors is very poorly understood.

The cancers develop at the site of injection. I have not seen any reports of vaccines causing tumors in distant locations. Therefore, it is extremely unlikely that your cat’s abdominal tumor was linked to a vaccine. Fibrosarcomas can develop naturally, and if your cat suffered from a fibrosarcoma in her abdomen it likely occurred spontaneously. I sincerely doubt that your decision to vaccinate your cat contributed to her death.

Three-year rabies vaccines usually contain a component called adjuvant that is designed to help stimulate the immune system. One-year vaccines generally do not contain this component. Some people have hypothesized that adjuvant contributes to fibrosaroma development. These people therefore speculate that the one-year vaccine may be less likely to cause cancer than the three-year vaccine. I have not seen conclusive proof of this.

For instance, some studies have suggested that merely inserting a needle into the skin may trigger a cascade of inflammation that ultimately leads to cancer. This implies that the adjuvant is not to blame.

Also, remember that one-year vaccines must be given three times as often as three-year vaccines. The relevant question therefore is whether one-year vaccines are three times less likely to lead to cancer.

A few years ago I attended a lecture by a representative of a company that produces one-year, non-adjuvanted feline rabies vaccines. After the lecture I cornered her (literally–she was trying to get away and I backed her into a corner) and asked the following question. I remember it verbatim.

Can you provide quantitative evidence that three-year vaccines are three times more likely to cause cancer as your one-year, non-adjuvanted vaccine?

Her answer was no. To this day I have not seen any study that proves that three one-year vaccines are safer than one three-year vaccine (if anyone is aware of such a study, please let me know).

It is unlikely that your remaining cat will develop a fibrosarcoma from her rabies vaccine. Fibrosarcomas develop in approximately one out of every 3000 - 10,000 cats that receive the vaccine. I have no reason to believe that your cat is at increased risk.

Although vaccine-associated fibrosarcomas are not common, I still recommend that you never accept a one-size-fits-all vaccination plan for your pet. Good vets always are willing to talk about the risks and benefits of vaccination. Make an informed decision.

Photo: Myriah after removal of a vaccine-associated fibrosarcoma.

Lori
Milford MI

Jaw quivering is a form of trembling. Usually it is harmless.

Jaw quivering is especially common in older dogs (and people). In these individuals it usually is progressive but it almost never compromises quality of life.

Four-month-old puppies generally do not suffer from progressive jaw trembling. The shaking is more likely a transient issue that occurs as the puppy’s nervous system matures.

Rarely, a quivering jaw may be a sign of poisoning or a serious neurological disorder. However, I’ll bet that your son’s puppy is simply going through a phase. I don’t think you should worry too much about this matter.

Laura
Somerset, CA

Until you wrote to me, I had never heard of a French Spay. And a Google search revealed that the term isn’t commonly used. But after sorting through several worthless links, I found a discussion forum that seemed to offer the answer. A French Spay is an ovariectomy.

Normal spays, as every vet I know performs them, are ovariohysterectomies. In this procedure, the ovaries and uterus are removed from the body. In a French Spay only the ovaries are removed.

A French Spay will render a dog infertile and will eliminate heat cycles. Because the uterus need not be transsected, there is less risk of bleeding during surgery. However, a dog with an intact uterus will be at slight risk for uterine infections or cancer later in life.

If your dog was bleeding abnormally during surgery, a French Spay probably was a wise choice. However, I am worried about the abnormal bleeding. Bleeding like that doesn’t just happen–there has to be a reason.

Yorkshire Terriers and other small breeds of dogs are prone to a problem called liver shunt. This can lead to bleeding problems (and many other issues) in some cases.

I’d recommend that you pursue this matter further. Blood tests and diagnostic imaging may help to determine whether it is safe to correct the inguinal hernia that you have described.

Jazmin
Montreal, QC

In my opinion “special edition” isn’t the most diplomatic way of describing a cat whose behavior and temperament aren’t “normal”.

Of course, the word normal needs to be in quotes because the truth is that there is no way to define a truly normal personality in any species. And there certainly is no official definition of insanity in cats.

There is no DSM-IV for cats (heck, we don’t even have a DSM-I in veterinary medicine). Nonetheless, it is clear that cats and dogs can suffer from anxiety disorders (including separation anxiety in dogs), obsessive-compulsive behaviors (such as psychogenic alopecia in cats), impulse control problems, and a host of other psychogenic issues. (Vets use the term psychogenic in place of psychological.)

Brains are exceptionally complex organs. Hereditary traits and environmental conditions during development can lead to irregular brain circuitry and chemistry that are linked to behavioral or psychogenic issues in pets.

At this time, the field of veterinary behavior (which is the closest thing vets have to psychiatry or psychology) is still more or less in its infancy. But in due course I am confident we will make great strides towards understanding the basis of “abnormal” behaviors in pets. And maybe, some day, we will even have our own DSM.

From the “It must be true . . . I read it in the tabloids” section of the July 3 - 10, 2009 issue of The Week.

Two baby flamingos at . . . London Zoo have developed a phobia of the color pink. The month-old chicks, named Little and Large, both have the pale gray plumage flamingos are born with. In an attempt to feed them, zookeepers used a pink sock-puppet of an adult flamingo, but it only terrified the chicks. Their resulting phobia of anything pink has worrying implications for their future mental health. “We’ll just have to hope they get used to the color,” said keeper Alison Brown.

She was surprised to learn that the lumps in question were the dog’s nipples.

She asked why a male would have nipples. Before the advent of modern embryology, that question triggered an existential dilemma for many people. But these days the answer is known.

I started off with, “for the same reason that men have nipples.” That seemed to satisfy her, and she declined to listen to the rest of my explanation. It’s probably for the best, since the explanation is quite boring: the cells that develop into nipples differentiate prior to the release of sex hormones that lead to sexual dimorphism.

Scotti
Cypress, TX

Bladder infections are common in both cats and dogs. In dogs and in older cats, they are the most common causes of uncomfortable urination, bloody urine, and inappropriate urination (cats, dogs). However, in young cats such as yours, another syndrome can have identical symptoms to a bladder infection: feline lower urinary tract disease (FLUTD).

FLUTD is a process in which urinary chemistry imbalances lead to painful urination. It is linked to crystals in the urine and abnormal urine pH levels. In all cats it is very uncomfortable. In male cats it is linked to a potentially fatal complication called urinary obstruction.

Most bladder infections improve dramatically with one or two doses of antibiotics. If your cat has not had urine tests to confirm a bladder infection, I am suspicious that she may not have an infection. You should talk to your vet about this.

FLUTD usually is treated through dietary changes. It is a chronic problem that can cause intermittent pain and, in male cats, chronic risk of urinary obstruction. It is important to determine with certainty which problem your cat has.

Last October this blog covered a program in which veterans with post-traumatic stress disorder trained service dogs. The veterans enjoyed demonstrable improvement and the dogs went on to help other disabled individuals.

Merced County’s program is similar. In the program, at-risk high school students train assistance dogs. According to the county’s website, the students have reaped numerous benefits.

While training service dogs for the disabled, at-risk youth learn about child abuse, animal abuse, and domestic violence, and also explore empathy, citizenship, responsibility, and good choices.

The dogs are accepting and non-judgmental while offering love and motivating the students.

Watching the dogs’ rapid, measurable progress teaches the teens that positive reinforcement, empathy, and an encouraging, upbeat attitude are effective methods of interacting with others.

The children that participated have improved self esteem, behavior at home, school performance, and many are no longer involved in the child welfare system.

Through pre-testing and midway-point testing, HSA is able to show the teens knowledge of dog behavior, domestic violence, and child / animal abuse.

Interviews with the teens reveal diminishing gang involvement, self-injury, and substance abuse.

Interviews with parents show support for the positive impact on the teens, including improved home relationships, grades, and a decrease in trouble at school and negative peer relationships.

The community receives an increase of well-trained dogs to provide assistance to those in need.

As for the program’s downsides . . . I can’t think of any.

According to the County Website, the program was the idea of a social worker who noticed the positive effects of an in-training service dog on children. My hat goes off to that individual, and to the County of Merced.

Kortnie
King of Prussia, Pennsylvania

Anyone who has lived with one knows that puppies and kittens produce proportionately more waste than adult dogs and cats.

Their rapid growth is the reason for this. Young animals must process a great deal of food to make muscles, organs, and tissues. They need to drink large amounts of water in order to process the large amounts of food. And, because they eat and drink so much, they produce large amounts of waste.

Young puppies also urinate more often than adults until they are house trained (this is a behavioral matter). Also, puppies may urinate as a sign of submission. And many different diseases and syndromes may cause changes in urination.

But based on your description, I’m guessing that your puppy is urinating and defecating normally.

In this morning’s lecture, the speaker discussed a case in which he had treated the victim of a botched debarking surgery. He spent several minutes reminding the audience that veterinarians have no business performing surgery on the vocal cords of dogs unless there is a medical reason. He then queried the audience to find out how many of us have performed the procedure.

I admit that people may have been reluctant go confess to the procedure after the speaker’s rampage against it. But can you guess how many people, out of a group of perhaps 100 veterinarians, raised their hands?

None.

I recently wrote about a Massachusetts teen who is working to make debarking surgeries illegal in his state. I’m fine with that, but I don’t think it will be necessary in the long run. Soon there will be no debarked dogs simply because no vets will be willing or able to perform the surgery.